A semiconductor device is manufactured by applying a photoresist to a semiconductor device made of Si, GaAs, GaN, InP or the like, exposing and developing the photoresist to form a pattern; etching of a semiconductor device of a non-masked region with the photoresist pattern as a mask to form a fine circuit; and stripping the above photoresist from the semiconductor device, or alternatively carrying out ashing to strip off residual resist residue from the semiconductor device after the formation of a fine circuit in the same manner.
Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 64-42653A discloses a stripping liquid for a positive photoresist, containing dimethyl sulfoxide as a main component, and also containing a nitrogen-containing organic hydroxyl compound and an organic solvent such as glycol ether; and Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 62-49355A discloses a stripping agent composition containing an alkanolamine, a sulfone compound and a glycol monoalkyl ether. Although both of these can suppress corrosion of Si substrate and Al wire in the Si semiconductor device, the effect of corrosion resistance for a compound semiconductor device made of GaAs or the like is unsatisfactory.
Further, in a stripping agent composition containing an amine, a sulfone compound, and an aromatic hydroxy compound disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 5-281753A (U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,585), since the aromatic hydroxy compound rather accelerates the corrosion of the compound semiconductor device made of GaAs or the like, the stripping agent composition cannot be used in the manufacturing step for a compound semiconductor device. In addition, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 8-202051A discloses a photoresist stripping agent composition containing an amine, an acid amide, a sugar or a sugar alcohol, and water. However, since this photoresist stripping agent composition substantially contains 25% by weight or more of water of the entire composition, the corrosion against a compound semiconductor device made of GaAs or the like is large, even though the corrosion of the Si substrate and Al wire in the Si semiconductor can be suppressed. Therefore, it is made impractical to use the photoresist stripping agent composition as a stripping agent for resists or resist residue in the compound semiconductor device.